1. Weary of night's gloom, a traveller found no rest.
Darkness denied him refuge or place to lie.

2. He spied a distant fire and thought it a star,
His spirit lied that it was nought but a star.

3. When he found it was a kindly fire instead,
He trusted what he'd once thought must be false.

4. I raised a blaze to hail him with my palm
A Syrian fire, or storm from North or South.

5. "Lift it on high," I said, "that it may call
To a lonely traveller on a lonely night.”

6. As rain soaked him, he came to me for shelter.
I welcomed him, with ease and wished him well.

7. I turned towards the pool, still topped with drifts
The rain had not yet drained to their depths away.

8. I gashed its neck that the entrails might gush out
And furnish forth a feast for both of us.

9. The bubbles rose like pearls in their own spheres
Like cornelian and grey in their own globes.